The Father They Blamed

Six years ago, seven-year-old Cody Barrow vanished from the timber country outside Heart’s Cove, Oregon. His father, Eli, was never charged. He was never forgiven, either. Now the case has cracked open again, and the town’s old suspicion is back at his door.

Ex-Army search-and-rescue handler Tessa Vaughn arrives asking for Eli by name. With her is Boone, a dog trained to trail the living and find the dead. She came for Cody. Then she met his father.

Together they push into the rough, gated country of the rain-soaked logging hills, land only Eli knows well enough to search. Landowners want them gone. The police look hard at the one man with the most to lose. And every climb pulls Tessa closer to Eli: his steady hands, the watch he keeps while she sleeps, the inch he leans when grief comes.

Standing beside him could cost her the trust her work depends on. Doubting him could cost him the last person who believes him. And somewhere in those hills, someone is watching the search climb higher.

What happened to Cody Barrow, and who would rather he stayed lost?

The Father They Blamed is book two of The Heart’s Cove Files, a small-town romantic suspense series.